The proposed research aims at analyzing two parallel but concurrent phenomena: I) The new and increasing recognition of the interest for the cultural heritage located in the metropolitan peripheries of European cities by various stakeholders and by the citizens; II) The need for new developments (infrastructure, housing) in the periphery of European metropolises resulting to unprecedented densification pressures and extensive renewal of the existing urban fabric. The conjunction of these trends creates both opportunities and risks for the cultural heritage at the Metropolitan peripheries and its transmission to the citizens. Using innovative interdisciplinary methodologies, the project asks the following questions: How can we create value on the heritage of the urban peripheries, encouraging new development scenarios while protecting cultural heritage? What are the necessary mechanisms and tools to involve local societies in the policy making of cultural heritage at the urban peripheries? How can this heritage be used as a means of spatial justice and balance between the different areas of the metropolises? How can heritage in the peripheries play a role of the “cement” of metropolization? Most of all, how citizens can be associated to the best use of heritage in the urban peripheries to create a livable a just metropolis? The project will have very direct local impacts through co-creation workshops held at key sites of peripheral urban heritage, designed to assist institutional and community stakeholders in imagining and interrogating innovative strategies for (re)developing heritage sites, feeding directly into local initiatives. The empirical and persuasive materials produced through the workshops will be designed with community participation to address the broader community, inviting and promoting “heritage savvy” citizens, willing and able to participate in the processes of both heritagization and metropolisation. In addition, we anticipate that the online observatory platform created through this project can act as an open resource for stakeholders in the many peripheral urban sites that face similar challenges and opportunities. A series of pilots in the urban peripheries of the metropolises participating in the project (Bologna, Brussels, Krakow, Edinburgh, Madrid, Paris), will serve as text-beds and research laboratories to understand and analyze the changing nature of our cultural heritage and the role it can play today, help citizens approach change with greater confidence.

The first public art rental library was inaugurated fifty years ago in France. More than half a century has passed, yet the lack of recognition of this cultural institution, its actions and its collections is such that the French word "artothèque" raises questions. Unevenly distributed over the territory, art libraries were experimented, like the “Maisons de la culture”, in the 1960s, before being developed in the 1980s, at the same time as the FRACs, by the Ministry of Culture in order to reinforce the policy of decentralisation and cultural democratisation and to allow the public to encounter contemporary creation. The ambition of the Ministry of Culture was strong. It encouraged the acquisition of original contemporary artworks, initially multiple works, to build up a collection with a view to lending them to individuals. The art rental library is for the work of art what the library is for the book. What do the art rental libraries keep on a national scale? What do we know about the works acquired by these institutions with public money? Nobody knows. This absence leads to a lack of global vision of these collections, and to an underestimation of their quality and value. This observation of a lack of recognition and visibility of art rental libraries and their collections, at a time when the commemorations of the cultural policy of the 1980s have begun, led the ARP team to set up a project on French public art rental libraries and their collections 1982-2022. The objectives are to collect, for the first time on a national scale, information on the collections of public art rental libraries in order to develop and exploit the first database on art rental libraries and to carry out an unprecedented historical study in order to place these establishments and their collections in the history of cultural institutions.

The core question of Co3Dicology is to gain a deeper comprehension of the historical evolution of medieval bookbindings. This inquiry extends to understanding the intricate technical advancements that transpired from the Carolingian period through the Romanesque and Gothic eras. We seek to unravel why bookbinding techniques did not follow a path of steady progression but instead exhibited sudden and transformative leaps. Furthermore, our aim is to discern the emergence of both monastic and secular binding production practices, the latter initially tentative during the 12th century but gradually solidifying by the close of the Middle Ages in France. To achieve these objectives, our project focuses on an in-depth study of manuscripts as objects, examining their materiality and three-dimensional structures. Through the integration of digital tools we aim to establish a robust methodology that will enable us and others to scrutinise and analyse structural components of the book concealed to the naked eye. Our ambition is indeed to democratise this codicological approach, making it accessible not only to researchers but also the broader public, thus fostering a richer understanding of the historical complexity of medieval bookbinding craftsmanship.

The PREcare project involves researchers and academics specialized in geography (social and urban geography, spatial analysis), demographic studies as well as urban planning and development, and members of the French Red Cross (Croix Rouge Mobilités). The project aims to contribute both theoretically and operationally to the analysis of precariousness in small and medium-sized French cities, and solidarity-based actions (whether public, associative or informal) meant to support the most vulnerable. To what extent do situations of precariousness in small and medium-sized towns have specific characteristics? In which ways are they largely invisible? Which support systems for the most vulnerable are being implemented both within and outside the public sector? The project rests upon three key hypotheses: 1. precariousness in small and medium-sized cities may have increased in recent years, and may present spatial logics that need to be understood on an inter- and intra-urban scale; 2. it may be a phenomenon that is largely invisible, in the face of discourses and actions that focus above all on residential and economic attractiveness; 3. Small and medium-sized towns may be characterized by the central role played by the associative sector and more informal forms of local solidarity aimed at the most vulnerable, which may be more particularly due to interpersonal connections which may be facilitated in these towns. By combining national and local statistical and cartographic analyses, semi-structured interviews and the production of a video documentary, the PREcare project aims to make a theoretical and operational contribution to the analysis of precariousness in small and medium-sized cities. It is at the heart of the D7 theme "Societies and territories in transition" and will contribute to understanding the complexity of precarious situations in small and medium-sized cities, from the national to the local level, along with the actions implemented to tackle the social division of space in non-metropolitan areas. It provides a response to local and national demands for a better grasp of precarious situations in these areas and the action strategies enforced. The research team is familiar with the context of small and medium-sized cities and is highly experienced in the use of quantitative methods (databases, multi-criteria indicators) and qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, scientific documentaries). The research on precariousness and local solidarity emerged from initial exploratory fieldwork carried out in Ruffec and Angoulême (Charente). This work was combined with initial statistical analyses carried out on a national scale and discussions with stakeholders outside the academic world who expressed an interest in participating in the research team's discussions — the French Red Cross and the Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires. The project aims to measure accurately and distinguish situations of precariousness in small and medium-sized cities on both a national scale (including overseas territories) and inner-city scale (central municipalities and urban areas). It equally involves inquiring into the practices and representations of populations in precarious situations as well as the types of initiatives meant to support them, whether in the context of public action, associative involvement or forms of family solidarity. The project is divided into four workpackages (WP): WP1. Measuring precariousness and solidarity in small and medium-sized French towns; WP2. Understanding social and spatial experiences of precariousness; WP3. Analysing solidarity actions towards populations in precarious situations; WP4. Making precariousness and solidarity visible in small and medium-sized towns.

The project will study the poorly documented relationship between geographic and social mobility and their consequences on spatial inequalities. In particular, it will analyze the sources of spatial sorting as well as the role of transportation infrastructure on geographic and social mobility, for two countries with different spatial and political organizations, France and the United States, and for two contrasting periods, the 19th century and the second half of the 20th century. The research team will adopt a multidisciplinary approach and will rely on rich, localized and original historical data, such as information on the evolution of travel speeds. In particular, the project will focus on the role of transportation infrastructure development on local economic and demographic growth, the relocation of individuals and families across space, and access to opportunities (education and work).